Humberto de la Torre

Background

Humberto de la Torre pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for setting fire to a downtown hotel and killing more than two dozen people. He was sentenced by Judge Robert Devich of Superior Court to 625 years to life in prison on June 29, 1985.

The offence

The Dorothy Mae Apartment Hotel was swept by flames early in the morning of Sept. 4, 1982, near Sunset Boulevard and Figueroa Street, just north of downtown Los Angeles, at 821 W. Sunset Blvd. The fire killed 25 residents and injured 36 other people. Within 10 days, six injured people had died. The blaze perished 19 people, including an unborn baby and its mother, as the fire roared through the 50-year-old, three-story structure.

The building was informally known as "Little Salitre" because virtually all its nearly 200 residents came from the rural town of El Salitre in the Mexican state of Zacatecas. Authorities said the inferno was a case of arson resulting from an argument between the manager and a nephew who lived in the building, involving the nephew’s membership in a street gang, his smoking of marijuana, and spray painting of graffiti. Upset, the nephew, Humberto de la Torre, then 19, brought a dollar's worth of gasoline, threw it on the floor of an apartment, and ignited it with a match. The flames spread quickly, engulfing the building.

The uncle, Mateo de la Torre, managed the building and was unhurt in the blaze.

Investigation

Los Angeles fire officials said only the 1973 Stratford Apartments fire was as deadly, with 25 people killed and 52 injured.

Arrest

Humberto de la Torre was arrested the following December in Texas.

Trial

Humberto de la Torre pleaded guilty to 25 counts of murder.

Sentencing

Humberto de la Torre was sentenced in 1985 to 625 years in prison.

Outcome

Humberto de la Torre was serving his sentence at Folsom Prison.

Aftermath

The fire rendered the land practically useless for a while, its owners, a group of businessmen holding it for investment, said.

"It was as if the devil himself lived there," said attorney Hiran Kwan, a member of HLL Management Co. that owned the Dorothy Mae, expecting the land's proximity to the city's growing Chinatown would make it an increasingly valuable site. Kwan said his group found little interest in its plans to build a new apartment house or hotel on the lot. He blamed adverse publicity stemming from the fire and false rumors that owners were going to be prosecuted because fire officials had found unsafe conditions that might have contributed to the toll. Kwan said fire department records showed the building had generally been kept up to city fire code standards and had been cited in the past for only minor violations.

Kwan's group sold the Dorothy Mae land in 1984 for $500,000 to another group of businessmen headed by Chinatown banker Kenneth Wong. Wong said his group, U.P. Investment Inc., wanted to use the Dorothy Mae site as part of a major hotel and a shopping center development along Sunset. The group was trying to put together financing for the $19-million project, said Wong, board chairman of United Pacific Bank.